Mantus bridle for 50 to 70 ft boats (large)
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svperegrinus@yahoo.com
If you anchor out, you should have this or an equivalent. New these sell for $715.
We used a cheap, self-made snubber 99% of the time, but when weather was coming, the Mantus bridle came out for our Super Maramu.
This is peace of mind. A regular snubber attaches to one front cleat. This 30-ft bridle, with two 1" lines, attaches to two cleats, distributing the load. Since it is so long, it easily absorbs anything the sea throws at you, while your anchor remains undisturbed in the sea bottom, where it belongs.
We used this snubber to ride out hurricane Arthur in the Chesapeake and late winter gales at Ortona in the Adriatic, at Spinalonga in Crete, in Formentera in the Balearics, and a few other times. A confession: twice over several years I came up in the morning to find my regular snubber (never the Mantus bridle) hanging from the bow, unattached to the chain. This overnight disengagement can be attributed to operator error, bad hook design, or snubber too long or too short, sure, but the ultimate cause of failure certainly is that the sea conditions were excessive for the regular snubber: during one of the alternating slack periods, the hook fell off. This is unlikely to happen with the Mantus because of the hook design and the long, 1" rope which results in significantly less rubber-band effect.
Cheers to all, |
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We have a Mantus bridle and NEVER use it. Why? Because when the boat swings on anchor it gets really tangled up. It is well-made as
you state. If you are in a place where swinging isn't a
concern, it'll work well.
With best regards,
Mark
Skipper Sailing Vessel - Cream Puff
On 2/13/2023 9:27 AM,
svperegrinus@... via groups.io wrote:
If you anchor out, you should have this or an equivalent. New these sell for $715. |
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svperegrinus@yahoo.com
Well, that sold in a matter of hours the same day. Thanks!
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svperegrinus@yahoo.com
Hi Mark! Yes, I understand the concern about swinging, and I think got a couple of twists on it a couple of times! But never anything too bad, though I grant you that a midnight drag with a severely twisted bridle would not be safe. Our general solution was to untwist the twists as weather allowed, if necessary, every day. But we hardly ever anchored on tidal waters _and_ used the bridle, with the exception of that bit of bother in the Chesapeake, and now that I think of it, on the River Suir, in Ireland, where we sought refuge in advance of a very late spring Atlantic storm in 2019. Most of our bridle uses were in coastal bottoms in the Med when expecting rough weather: no tidal action to speak of, and especially no swings if the wind was blowing, which was the reason to get the bridle out! When we anchored in rivers such as the Thames, or on the Arno, or the Guadalquivir, for example, as there was no wave action to speak of and no expected wind action, we did not use the bridle. But I agree with you, anyone contemplating a bridle needs to be mindful of the use cases and possible complications! Be well, |
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